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»Golden Sun: The Lost Age
"Not as good the second time around."
In 2001, Camelot brought us a splendid little gem of an RPG known as Golden Sun
to the Game Boy Advance. Among the GBA’s slew of RPG adventures, it was
arguably one of the better turn-based outings the genre had seen in a
while. It was also rather lengthy for a GBA game, clocking in at an
average of about 22 hours to finish to completion.
The second game in the series, Golden Sun: The Lost Age,
isn’t so much a sequel as it is the second act to a play. If you loved
the story from the original, then you’re in for more of the same, but
with a twist that I won’t delve into too much.
The action picks up just after the events of the first game with Alex,
one of the former bad guys, his sister Jenna, their new acquaintance,
Sheba, and their mentor, Kraden, experiencing the final events from the
first game, ultimately ending up on an island adrift in the ocean.
After it makes landfall, it is up to the group to gear up, find the
remaining elemental lighthouses, and save the world in the process.
Haven’t we heard something like this before?
Apart from a different cast of characters, the game plays nearly
identically to the original. The primary difference is that you can
import your group from the first Golden Sun
for later use. I can’t really get into too much detail without giving
away the storyline, but you can mix and match group members, keeping
four active and four on standby. And yes, you can switch party members
in and out of active status during battles. However, when all is said
and done, it is still another turn based RPG with easy to navigate
menus.
Back again is the Djinn collection system. These Djinn do basically the
same thing as their predecessors: duplicate superior effects to spells
you already have, and call insanely powerful summons. All good, but
there are a total of 44 Djinn to find, plus there some are available
from the first game, just in case you didn’t get a chance to find them
all, or just didn’t want to enter the seemingly endless password to
port over your group.
Nothing has really changed graphically between the two games, either.
While they looked remarkable in 2001, they have noticeably aged by
2003. Don’t get me wrong; the graphics still look great, but one would
think Camelot would have improved on the original in the two years
between the two titles. Hero and enemy sprites all look decent, if
fairly pixilated, and spells and weapon discharges all look nifty. Once
you begin learning summons, you can summon large spell effects that are
cool the first couple times you see them, but get stale rather quickly.
Thankfully, you can skip them.
The audio is a blast too. Not only do we hear many familiar tracks from
the original, there are plenty of new midis abound as well. Camelot
obviously treated the game’s soundtrack with a lot of TLC. The music is
engaging, and generally suiting to your current situation. The quasi
obnoxious ‘Squeak speak’ is back. I still love how they tailor the
pitch and tone to each character. If you a female is speaking, you’re
guaranteed a higher pitch. If male, you can count on it being more
baritone.
The game does not offer a great deal of game play. There are a couple
extras, such as the optional boss that you receive from finding all the
Djinni (from the first AND second games), and a couple lottery style
vendors you find throughout the game. Is it worth spending another
thirty hours to work your way through the game? Well, there is plenty
of map to explore, and not everything on it is required to beat the
core quest. As with every RPG, that’s up to the player. I would
personally choose to replay both games only after not having played
either in a long while. This game is definitely worth picking up for a
good RPG adventure.
Article by: getahl
Posted on: Oct. 17th, 2006 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Great menu-drive game in its own sake, but doesn’t deviate from the prior game at all
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Graphics |
| Not shabby. Can get very pixilated. Character and enemy sprites, while nice at times, can get very ugly during a close up. |
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Sound |
| Superb sound quality. Squeak-speak may be a little much at times. |
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Replay Value |
| A couple sidequests. An optional boss that can be taken out the first play through. |
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Comments |
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October 17, 2006 |
damazta |
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wow it's a good thing I never reviewed either of the Golden Sun games
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